Space, Destiny, and Bloody Mad Doctors
by midnightluck
Summary: It's a pretty standard day at the Narumi Detective Agency when Shoutarou and Philip trip into something bigger than themselves, bigger than Fuuto, and possibly, bigger than Earth.


__All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners (Toei, BBC).__

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><p><em>Chapter One; In which the Doctor shows up, Shoutarou goes abroad, and Philip isn't worried, except for how he totally is<em>

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><p>"Found it!" Shoutarou called triumphantly, sliding around a corner. He slapped on the Double Driver, and grinned. "Hey, you! Stop right there!"<p>

"Eh?" Philip said, looking through Shouatarou's eyes. "But...but it doesn't really look like a Dopant? I have no idea what it is, or what keywords to use to look it up."

"It does look strange," Shoutarou said, a bit dismissively. "But, Philip-"

"Let's go, partner." Philip held up his Memory, and triggered it.

_**Cyclone.**_

_**Joker.**_

_"Henshin!"_

"Now," the voice of W said, "Count up your sins!"

"Blarblebleerble," the Dopant answered, or something similar.

Philip hesitated. "Uh, Shoutarou, are we sure this is a Dopant?"

Shoutarou sighed. "Look at it. Do you know of anything else it could be?"

Philip, though still uncertain, followed Shoutarou's lead. "If you say so..."

So W charged forward, and started with the high kick Shoutarou favored, followed by a jab combo and a leg sweep.

The Dopant crashed to the ground, and didn't get back up. W fell back, waiting for it to recover.

It didn't.

"Is it playing dead?" Philip asked, just as the Memory was ejected, and broke apart.

"What? We didn't even use a Memory Break!" Shoutarou exclaimed, and they moved forward. "Miss? Sir? Er, are you all right?"

The being made a whimpery noise and curled up tighter. W stopped, then came in again, slower. "Hello?"

"Shoutarou, maybe we should split?" Philip suggested. "It seems to be scared of us."

Shoutarou nodded their head, and triggered the detransformation. Purple and green exploded out from him, and, like always, he had a brief sensation of being alone in his too-big skin, missing his other half. But it passed, as always, and he slowly approached it, leaving the Driver on so Philip could watch through his eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked again. The person groaned and stretched. And stretched and stretched and stretched.

It kept unfolding itself up and out, until it stood about nine feet and change, thin and ethereal and almost glowing.

_"Shoutarou..."_ Philip said, voice nestling into the back of Shoutarou's head.

"That's not a person."

_"Shoutarou, breathe."_

"That. Is not. A person."

_"Shoutarou? Partner?"_

_"That is not a person!"_

Philip sighed. _"We combine into one body to fight mutant supermen and you're worried about aliens? Really, Shoutarou?"_

"Oh, hello, sorry to barge in, if you'll just let me by... Thanks. Oh. Oh, look at you. You're _fantastic_!" A rather odd-looking man pushed Shoutarou out of the way, leaning in to look closer at the creature. "So far from home, and still alive, oh, that's absolutely fantastic. Oh, and hello! I'm the Doctor. I can take you home."

The creature said something like, "blooberplop," and the man smiled.

"Yes, that's me! Hello! Blarargle meeprar!"

There followed a conversation consisting mostly of vowels, before the man turned, beaming. "Sorry, just budge up there a bit, coming through..."

Shoutarou stepped numbly out of the way, letting him trot away, the creature taking one long bouncing stride to every three of the man's.

"Do a Look-Up," Shoutarou said suddenly. "Keywords: Dopant, alien, the doctor."

_"Ah,"_ Philip agreed, and then fell silent. Shoutarou took off running in the direction the man had headed in.

_"The Doctor,"_ Philip said in that absent way that meant he was reading from his books._ "An alien about whom little is known. Apparently, he randomly pops up throughout history to set things right and also cause chaos. He has been alternatively lauded and been condemned to death by various historical figures of prominence."_

Shoutarou waited a second, peering around a corner. He caught a glimpse of leather, and darted around, looking for the nearest cover. "And?" he prompted.

_"And nothing,"_ Philip said, frustrated. _"The only facts I have on him are as told second-hand by humans. At a guess, he's not from Earth, so I haven't got his book in the Planetary Bookshelves."_

"Is that possible? I mean, aliens." Shoutarou rounded a corner, and found himself alone. "What? I know he came this way..."

He glanced around, eyes sliding from wall to sidewalk to poster to blue box to rail to wall, looking for any other exit from the alley.

He blew out a breath, frustrated, and turned in a circle. There were no doors on the left wall and none on the right, and the end was solid, he knew, and there wasn't enough room to hide anything that tall. He looked up, checking the rooftops as well, and sighed.

"I know this alley. It doesn't lead anywhere; it backs into the bank building, so where...?" He walked a circuit of it, neatly sidestepping the blue box to keep a steady pace.

Wait. Waitwaitwait. Blue box?

And now that he knew that there was something there, he looked for it, and the box edged its way into his view.

_"Ah,"_ Philip said._ "How compelling..."_

_Ah,_ Shoutarou thought. _Well, shit._

He tried the door, but it was locked. So he knocked, calling out, "Hey, you!"

The door opened under his fist, and he accidentally rapped on the man's head.

"Ow," the guy complained. "Hey, no call for that." But then he grinned, the size of his smile only outdone by the size of his ears.

"Er, hello," Shoutarou said politely. "I think you've just kidnapped my client."

He blinked. "Beg pardon?"

"The tall, glowing alien thing," Shoutarou clarified. "It had a Memory, is all, and it shouldn't have. My case, my client."

"Oooh, you know about Memories! Fantastic! Hi, I'm the Doctor. Let me just take him home and I'll pop back around for tea, mmkay?"

"No," Shoutarou said stubbornly, shoving a foot into the door, and making this Doctor turn back around. "My case, my client."

The Doctor looked at him, really looked, and frowned. "Hmmm...Well, I suppose, if you must. What are you, anyway, some kind of detective?"

"Yes, exactly." He squeezed through the door, expecting to be crammed up against a wall. Instead he tripped forward into empty space. "Oh," he said, turning around in circles. "Oh. Wow. It's...it's bigger on the inside."

_"Yes, it is,"_ Philip said. _"So is my head, remember?"_

"How...but why?"

The Doctor grinned again. "Cock up at the architects," he explained happily, and added, "Hold on!"

The he charged the glowing console in the center, and furiously attacked buttons and levers, sending the whole room pitching from side to side, and round in no few circles. Shoutarou clung grimly to a railing, and said, "What's going on?"

But Philip didn't answer, and Shoutarou was stunned to realize he could no longer feel his presence. He was the only one in his head, hurtling around an impossible room with aliens, and he really, really wanted his partner.

He hadn't felt so alone since Boss died.

But the shaking did, eventually, stop, and Shoutarou just kind of collapsed, breathing in-and-out, and trying to slow his pulse back to something resembling normal.

_"-arou? Shoutarou!"_ And just like that, Philip was back in his head, and he blew out a breath of relief. _"Where did you go?"_

"I'm not sure," he said quietly, and the mad Doctor went charging down the ramp and opened the door.

Shoutarou got the feeling this guy ran at things. A lot.

"Here we go!" the Doctor announced, throwing the doors open wide. "Home sweet home, and all. Marrrglemeerp!"

"Eh?" Shoutarou stuck his head around the corner to see that outside the door…was not an alley in Fuuto. Instead, it was a wash of purple sand under a red sky.

_"How pretty,"_ Philip commented. _"Like a sunset."_

The Doctor herded the creature out, and it made happy, purring sounds and immediately fell over.

"Hey—" he started, but then saw that it was just rolling in the sand. "Oh."

"Now," said the Doctor as they watched the creature wallow. "Let's talk."

Which is, of course, when an entirely different and far more hostile giant creature appeared, attempting to snatch up their creature, who squealed in fright.

"Oh, dear, that's not normal," the Doctor said, which was all Shoutarou needed to hear.

He stepped out onto the sand, which shifted a bit underfoot. That would make fighting trickier, but not impossible. "Philip!" he called.

His partner, nestled in his head already, said, _"Ah, let's go,"_ and they took up their stance.

_**Cyclone.**_

"Erm, not to be a bother, but who are you talking to?" the Doctor wanted to know, but Shoutarou was far more focused on the Memory appearing under his right hand. For a second there, he'd been afraid it wouldn't work.

_**Joker.**_

_"Henshin!_"

_"I have a theory,"_ Philip said, even as they turned sidewards.

"Now," they chorused out of pure habit. "Count up your sins!"

"Any time, now," Shoutarou prompted, even as they lead with a sweep, and followed up with a middle kick.

_"The creature's Memory broke easily, remember?"_

"Yeah, we didn't even do a Memory Break."

_"Maybe because it wasn't a Gaia Memory? It must have been a Memory drawing from a different planetary core."_

"So the difference in strength comes from distance from the planet?"

_"I think so. So we'd best be careful, partner."_

"Understood. Now…"

_"Yes."_

_**Metal.**_

"Oh," said a voice from behind him. "That's new."

They didn't have much attention to spare for the Doctor, other than to be sure the man was behind them, where he wouldn't be hurt. They were far more concerned with the fast almost-Dopant in front of them, who, incidentally, had teeth the size of W's arm.

And from there, it was the blur of the fight, the give-and-take of Philip's and his sides, as they balanced and turned and kicked and jumped, and their blood pumped in his veins.

Finally, they overbalanced the beast, using the sand and Cyclone's wind to their advantage. They blew a gust of purple up towards where its eyes would be, and it howled and fell back.

"Nice going," Shoutarou panted.

_"Thanks. It was your idea. And now?"_

"Well, that's obvious."

_**Cyclone.**_

_**Joker.**_

_"Memory Break! Joker Extreme!"_

The double kick landed, perfectly accurate, and they smiled together in just the same way. "Got him," Shoutarou said, and the creature fell backwards, light refracting off the coating as it broke into a thousand shining shards.

A Memory, longer and thinner than theirs, emerged from the thing, and broke as well. Then it was just a creature, looking similar to the first one, laying curled upon the purple sand.

Then a green hand snaked around, and smacked the side of a black head.

"Hey!" Shoutarou protested, grabbing the arm. "What was that for?"

_"For dropping out of contact. You worried me, partner."_

The black foot stepped on the green one's toes, and W performed an odd, half-hopping, half-jumping maneuver.

Shoutarou laughed, and Philip laughed with him, the happy of _we're-still-alive_ with the knowledge of _we're-still-together._

Then there was an odd sound behind them, and they turned to find that the Doctor was actually applauding them. "That was fantastic!" he said, beaming. "What Memories were you using? How did you overcome the distance? What was that technique? I've never seen anything quite like that before!"

"Ah," Shoutarou said, and tried a tentative half-bow. Since Philip didn't move along with him, it resulted in an odd sort of shoulder-dip. "This is W," he said, and let the transformation go.

"W! Perfect! Come on, let's get back in the TARDIS, and you can tell me all about it! It's not often I come across new things any more…"

"Before that, can we go back to Earth? Only, my partner is a bit worried," he said, and didn't add, _and so am I._

"Sure, yes, of course," the Doctor said. "Earth, Japan, Fuuto, 2009, coming right up!"

"I might drop out again," Shoutarou warned Philip quickly.

_"Hurry back,"_ Philip said, and then they held their breath, two sets of lungs expanding together.

And the chaos started, Shoutarou falling to his knees and locking his feet around a post. His head knocked against the metal rail, and he gritted his teeth against a sound of pain. He could ride this out. He'd get back to Earth, back to Philip and Akiko and the Agency, and life would be normal, and—

"We're here!" the insane Doctor called cheerfully. "Hey, what are you doing down there?"

"Hanging on for dear life," he replied through gritted teeth.

The Doctor just beamed at him. "You can let go now, you know."

"I'm getting used to the idea. Slowly." All this traveling stuff was so not for him. "Philip?" he called cautiously.

There was a second of silence, and Shoutarou felt his stomach drop even lower, if that were possible. "Philip!" he called again, slightly more frantically.

_"SHOUTAROU!"_

"Hey, not so loud!"

_"Shoutarou, you idiot, where have you been!"_

"Eh? I just got back. It's only been a few minutes."

_"It's been a week! You can't just disappear on me like that!"_

"What? A week? We've been gone a whole week?"

The Doctor turned around, smiling a little bit apologetically. "Sorry about that; she needs a few readjustments and recalibrations. You know."

"A week?"

"Yes. Er. Sorry?"

"A _week_!"

_"Just leave it, Shoutarou, and get back here, okay? Just…come back."_

"Yeah, okay," he said, taking a second to breathe. "Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can."

He headed for the door, taking off the belt as he ran, and tore it open to find that he was back in Fuuto. He turned in a circle once, getting his bearings.

He was in the alley beside the Agency.

That was unexpected. But he charged around the corner anyway, heading up the stairs two at a time.

He flung the door open, and caught an armful of green and yellow and Philip.

Philip didn't cry, not ever, not even now. He just buried his head against Shoutarou for a few seconds, reveling in the reality of his partner's presence.

Then he stepped back, drew in a breath, and said, "A whole week, Shoutarou. Don't do that again. Please."

And because Shoutarou was unable to deny Philip anything, he smiled and said, "I promise, okay? Not again."

Then the background music swelled, and the two looked over to see the Doctor poking at their radio.

"Oi! You!" Shoutarou started, heading towards the man. "This is all your fault!"

"Is not," the Doctor said, mildly affronted. "You were the one demanding to come along, you know. How was I to know you were psychically linked? Humans won't develop that for ages, yet! You might have said."

"Hey, guys, it's okay. Shoutarou's back," Philip said, and grabbed his partner's hand, as if to prove to himself that he really was here.

"Yeah," Shoutarou said. "Okay, fine, whatever. So what was that creature, and why did it have a Memory?"

"Ah, that," the Doctor said, turning serious in a single split-second. "It's been an epidemic, lately, all over the universe. There are Memories popping up on every planet, with different powers and names, but they all corrupt. Someone is spreading Planetary Memories everywhere, and though I don't know why, I'm sure it's not good."

"How are you fighting them?" Shoutarou asked. He knew the pain of fighting Memories, but he had back-up. As far as he could tell, this man was alone.

"I'm not," the Doctor said bluntly. "I can't. I can only find them and hope to talk them down, or pick up the pieces afterwards. So what you did back there…I want to know more about it."

There was silence for a second, before Philip said, abruptly, "It wouldn't matter. Only we can do it, and they're Gaia Memories, so it couldn't help you."

There was a but hanging in the air, and all of them could feel it. The Doctor watched them with a calm face and old eyes.

Then Philip glanced at him, and yes, he knew what was going on here. "You want us to volunteer, don't you."

The Doctor 's face split in a smile so big Shoutarou was actually afraid he might strain something. "I hadn't thought of it, but now that you mention it…."

He didn't want to. Fuuto was his city, and he hated to be away for any period of time. But.  
>Philip leaned in to whisper, "You know we're the only ones who can do it."<p>

"Yes," he sighed, "I know."

"So…?" His partner watched with eager eyes. He was probably looking forward to going into outer space, the restless idiot.

"'A man's job is eighty percent decision-making," he quoted at himself. "'…and the rest…'"

Philip smiled, and finished it for him. "'…is just a bonus.' Come on, there are more Dopants out there, terrorizing people, and making other cities cry. And we can do something about it."

"I know," Shoutarou sighed. "Okay, fine. Let's go save the universe."

"Yes," Philip echoed, turning back to the Doctor and squeezing Shoutarou's hand again. "Let's go."


End file.
